Mark IV

Abstraction or no, I can't see a Sharpshooter running out of ammo in a 30 minute battle. This has been done to death, and yes we can edit it in the scenario editor, but not in a QB. A very minor quibble, hopefully not enough to jeopardize my sycophant status. On the East Front "sharpshooters" were a big problem for the Germans (and presumably the Russians). They lost a lot of TCs to sniper fire. It is, btw, highly unnecessary to dwell on the difference between snipers and sharpshooters in the context of CM (again). Only sharpshooters are modeled, and the term is used generically on this board, as it was by combat troops of all nations on the actual battlefield. In CM, "sniper" = Sharpshooter, period.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by StellarRat: [QBThis makes sense since the Soviets were always trying to get to close range where their tanks had a chance to hit something and their numbers would come into play. Also, there is a better chance of getting flank and rear shots when you overrun the enemy.[/QB]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> In the early ancounters in the East, with the T-34, I think the roles were reversed. The Germans had the thin armor and wimpy guns, (37s and 50mms), and were angling for flanks on the Russkis. The T-34 was doing the stand-off plinking. The whole equipment picture changed a lot over 4 years. Guderian was urging the Germans to adopt some sort of gun stabilization system by the end, not knowing that the engineers had already considered and rejected gyro-stabilizers for the 88 due to size constraints. INVESTIGATIONS IN GERMANY BY Tank Armament Research

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lindan: MENSCH are you out of your mind offering KROMBACHER to this scum!?! They all deserve HANSA or even Binding Export at the best! Lindan<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Besser als Henninger. I drank plenty of Binding during my servitude in F.a.M., though I held out for Licher Pils when I could get it. That was before the apfelwein kick... The Outer Board has finally gone stark raving mad, and this is the only safe place to be. We will hide your bier in our kellers for you, until this all blows over. True to form, Wildman has stuck me with the frogs in a shooting gallery. He must be taught that tanks die too quickly in CM! Allons!

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CMplayer: Earlier in the same interview you have them 'leading with armor'. The Stuarts go first across a field, then go back, and then tell the infantry to come along.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> "Was that the first D Company tank to be lost?" "Dale Albee: I don’t think so. I think we lost some tanks before that. Because Periers was down there, when they had the bombing of St. Lo, that was in that area. We worked from Ste. Mere Eglise across to La Haye du Puits, and there for a while, about two or three days, we were detached from the 90th Division and went to the 8th, and I know they said that we had more casualties under the 8th than we’d had all the time with the 90th. The word we got from the medium companies was that one platoon of tanks and the infantry was supposed to move across this field together. The tanks went across the field, looked around, and there are no infantry. The tanks went back, said all right, get ready, and went across the dang field again, and the infantry wouldn’t go. And tanks cannot move without infantry. This was what they were facing. They were green troops. They came in carrying bedrolls up into the front line. They didn’t know what to do, and they truthfully didn’t have any leadership. And here’s our old tankers used to the 90th. If you said move across, that old infantry was right behind you working with the tank ready to fan out."

I am betting many of you are familiar with this site: Tankbooks - Dale Albee's story FWIW, they were crewing Stuarts and M8s as recon. "Lucky [sergeant Max Lutcavish] was leading. I think Lucky at that time was the platoon sergeant for Lieutenant [Lex] Obrient. They were going down this road, and the German tank was dug in about 150 yards off the road. And what he did, he let Lucky go by – I’ll say Lutcavish; we always called him Lucky – and he shot at McNulty’s tank. "The German tank was either a Mark V or a Mark VI. The Mark V, I think, had a high-velocity 75 and that little devil is just about as dangerous as the 88. Your 88, if you stood up, it came up just about to your waist, and the high-velocity 75 was just three to four inches shorter. And it was flat trajectory. But anyhow, he took McNulty’s tank, and it was a flamer, because he hit it right in the gas tank. They say the flames shot up about forty feet. It killed Ezerskis and Jezuit, the driver and the bow gunner, immediately. And Roselle and McNulty got out, but they were burned awful bad. And in the meantime Lucky had swung around. And by this time the German had traversed over and was getting ready to knock him out." "Lucky’s tank opened up and I think Lucky said that they fired eight times. Three of them went right through the muzzle break so that either way, three inches in would have put it right down the barrel. They emptied everything, the coaxial gun was fired also and they just peppered it. Even the bow gunner down in the front could only shoot to the front, and they had traversed around to the right and he emptied his gun, too. "While they were firing, either a panzerfaust or a bazooka hit Lucky’s tank right in the butt, and set him on fire, so he’s still firing with his tank on fire. "They knocked out this tank, and the Germans escaped out of the back hatch. And then Lucky and his crew got out and got away. They later recovered that tank, but McNulty’s was a total loss."

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Elvis: Mark4 another follower. Sad. I thought you at least had a mind of your own.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Huh, me? Hell no, this is a rental mind. You don't think I'd bring my own mind into a place like this! It's in the shop, having the Deadmarsh filter replaced. The subtle, inescapable irony of your replacing "IV" with "4" can't even be missed by this old clunker, though. I know that to you, I'm just mark.zip, and I appreciate the gesture. Yer a helluva Namerican.

Other thoughts from Elvis’ forthcoming book, “Rants Against the Machine”: I will no longer drive on named streets. Streets are not people and do not move about, therefore they do not require names. If you are driving and get lost, simply return to the previous street and start over. I will no longer address envelopes with anything other than the receiving party’s name. I only have one acquaintance named Peng, and everybody knows him. The post office should simply deliver it to him without fussing about his personal data. I will not name my newborn son. I only have 2 children and can easily tell them apart at a glance, and so can everyone else. I will no longer read the dosage indications on medications. After all, you should just keep taking them until you feel bett… The manuscript ends here, but I’m sure he’ll be adding more later, as soon as he is able.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Colonel_Deadmarsh: If CM is going to error on one side or the other, I'd rather have them make tanks a little less vulnerable to first shot knockouts.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I'd rather have them like they were in WWII. Why would a tank be "less vulnerable" to the first shot, rather than the second or third? And hitting a tank at 400m is not much of a challenge, even for a greenie, who made it through training. Tanks are large, tank guns are accurate. Is their some conflict with the historical record in the way tanks are modeled?

Gone fishin' at the coast for the weekend, and I return to 8 (!) pages of weekend spew. Elvis, you may substitute a "y" for the offending digit. The Pacific was beautiful and bountiful as usual. How fortunate that Australia is so far away. Further, I have an Inbox full of hate from current oppos, and even a setup from Soiledman. I laugh at you all, haha. I'll get to it when I bloody well please, i.e., when She lets me. Hats off once again to Seanachai for cramming more into a header than most SSNs do in a post (apologies to the always-quotable Herr Nietzsche).

Can I have his boots?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Spook: The proper place for Peng threads & its denizens would be some Usenet newsgroup like alt.games.combat-mission.getalife.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> The Great Martini Debate alone revealed more useful information than the entire SMG mini-series (except for Steve's chiming in). And the taunts, while less vicious and petty, were of higher quality. I suppose until someone forms alt.smg.getalife the SMGers are tolerated here, like a forum version of "The Art Bell Show". :eek:

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wildman: I can only suggest a quick trip to Confessor Peng to help you on your way to posts with wit and verve.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> As any of us who play him regularly know, there is no such thing as a "quick trip to Confessor Peng". The real WWII, all of it, was a 500 point TCP/IP Quick Battle clickfest compared to a PBEM with the Mr. But we're not here to discuss Peng, but rather our collective thanks that your unspeakable dullness occurs on only a quarterly basis (here, since for you, it lasts all year long). The temp agency which provided you to us, during a rare shortage of newbie fodder, has since waived its fees and apologized, and credited back the charges to my Peng Thread Platinum Card. They have since realized that MBT quality standards cannot be met by unskilled, part-time "help" with deplorable attendance records and obviously faked drug screening reports. In fact, your previous assignment at the car wash had many of the same issues, we understand. We must insist that you return the stapler and calculator missing from our front office, though you may keep the dictionary, provided you read the entry for "irony". Thanks for writing, but we are unable to provide a reference for you at this time. Best of luck in your future endeavors.

Gentlemen: The Peng Challenge thread, aka the Cesspool, is beginning to eye this thread with suspicion, as a potential competitor. While no one there is arrogant enough to compel anyone to play CM in a manner that anyone could voluntarily do anyway, at least without intentionally trying to be funny, there are certainly all the seeds for an alternative Cesspool here. Our ample supply of staff lawyers will be watching.... PS: Unless one embraces the notion that the ammo loadout for SMGs is historically inaccurate, there is no reason for the test. Efforts would be better directed to establishing that premise. For those who do not accept the premise, imagining fewer bullets is relatively easy, but irrelevant. Or is the loadout adjustment a gamey compromise for a fancied inaccuracy in the FP? Is there an echo in here?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wildman: I submit these reports of Berli, Shanadorf, Mark IV, and Mace in numourous grog thread, including, but not limited to "Pentetration, SMG GAP, The T-34 and you, and finally IS-2 Ubertank or dandy".<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> What this vile and pathetically spelled calumny fails to note is that none of us have made any contributions of measurable worth to said grog threads. However, the mere presence of a known Pengian in a grog thread has been known to shorten it by several pages, and you may thank us for that. Anyway, I bowed out of the SMG Gap thread when it ceased to be about SMGs, or gaps, and when persons inspiring greater revulsion and abhorrence than any Cesspudlian appeared, to work their special magic. Now, on with the trial.

Well, his doggerel's improving, anyway. And that's a mean guitar riff. It further occurs to me, that during the dark days of the Meeksian Heresy, 'twas the accused guilty bastard that saved the 'pool from schism and the horrors of civil war (to be replaced with the even more horrible fruits of Cesspulian "peace"). I think the head-banging was a nice act of contrition.

Hmmm... second thoughts as I deliberate these weighty matters. Thought the First: Were not most of you scum-sucking newbies at one time (unlike we seniorest kaniggets, who never were)? Were you all not recruited, if not by invitation, then by the smell? Final thought: If voluminous postings of little merit and vague ill-will are a crime, shouldn't the Prosecutor himself be arraigned as a habitual criminal? Fourth: Why is the victim not speaking in his own defense? He has never not spoken before. Perhaps he has been intimidated? Why is no one offering to buy my vote? Secondly: What is a panzerwerfer and why is it addressing this august and solemn assemblage? How far can you throw a panzer, anyway? The accused had posted the equivalent of the Encyclopaedia Brittannica, unfortunately all of it gibberish and doggerel, long before this tankchucker had sounded out the syllables "add reply". In short, shut up. You were held in contempt by the personnel in your delivery room and you shall find it no different here. I think these issues must be addressed before the guilty party can be rendered.

Ye gods, that was a far more eloquent defense than I was expecting, or than the accused guilty party merited. But if he's innocent, why does he have a lawyer? I ask you. Just trying to be impartial, here.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Panzer Leader: As the first witness for the defense, Panzer Leader men of men, and squire of squires steps forth... he has invited me to this sunny cess seashore and helped to make my stay a pleasant and welcome experience.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> So, there are multiple charges then? Inviting newbie grog scum rather pales next to this. Lorak!!! Didst thou note well the stunning admission by chrisl near the end of the last thread? No need to Search, man, let me help: Mark IV: 62, which is exactly twice as many as... chrisl: 31, who is beaten all the way to Alaska. In vehicular terms, it was 7-0, despite some mobility issues experienced in the second half and the last minute banzai charge of the Ghost M8 HMC. How it galls me that one lived... Write it large, on the face of the moon with atomic munitions, where his children's children's children must read it for all eternity. A probe. In the fog, on a large map, by Veteran Amis attacking with a phalanx of FOs, hugging 3 edges (never seen that one before). Huge big bombs, lots of 'em. And he put mud in front of two of my AFVs who bogged in open ground]. And in the middle, a quiet force of Regular Germans, steadfastly maintaining the thin grey line, by running back and forth, to create a double inner encirclement in the classic figure 8 defense. I can't elaborate here, as this maneuver is still secret. But what a wonderful little war.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by russellmz: oh yeah: i vote hell. <big><big><big># 2</big></big></big><HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Ask Germanboy for a copy of "The Afterlife"... it's there. Don't know if it ever saw the official light of day, but it should.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Seanachai: I CALL FOR A TRIAL!... A TRIAL BY LAW BY MY PEERS! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Great. Just when the roach motel under the sink looks like it might yield a tidy income supplement, they get called for jury duty. Well, with all the legal aid at our disposal on this thread, this should make Sacco-Vanzetti look like a pair of badly-dressed foreigners, and Julius and Ethel like... insider traders... (rimshot). Right. Anyway.... Now my favorite little panzer chew-toy schradlet is the Lindbergh baby of the Peng thread, and I really like the chain-saw resolution to the controversy, though not whomever thought of it, but I can't be bothered looking he/she/it up. Why has no one thought outside the old box enough to suggest he be split lengthwise, that neither contender need be "shorted" as it were? Elvis you little warlorrette, I am gunning for your megalomaniacal pumpkin of a head!!! How did you fail to see my previous challenge? And chrisl you oaf, be careful what you wish for... the turn cometh... it is under 90 F here, and I'm back in the scotch; woot.

Mr. schrad (a piss-boy hardly rates a "von"): You are indeed coming. You are, in fact, charging the bleeding remnants of the most useless troops in CM (Brit glider squads) across an open, paved square, where the only cover is the VL flagpole. You are surrounded, and on at least one side by a large, angry German tank. A pity Tennyson is dead; he would have found this inspirational.

I found this... Dustbin ...FWIW.

Happy Bastille Day, you provincial scum. This should be a big day for the rabble, i.e., all of you. As PawBroon knows, this calls for drinks, though it's still a mite early here. The SMG thread was fun when it was about guns and stuff. Username was throwing his usual snowballs at traffic, and the amazing Finns were discovered to have invented the sky. Those were good times. You may now fire at will. Everyone I have been playing seems to have been befallen by strange RL disasters. This is excellent, actually a part of my strategy. Who would like to be next? Perhaps I'll go lean on a lamp post in Chat, for some easy TCPIP action....

PTO would not be boring, and Korea would be great. If you make a scenario of the Falaise Gap massacre it will be boring, too. Omaha Beach might be exciting for one side, but the whole idea of blasting mostly helpless targets for 30-40 turns doesn't make for a great scenario. If you focus on the more challenging aspects of the PTO, you will have a great game. It wasn't all digging out fanatical snipers after blowing up islands with naval fire. A company or two of jarheads moving in after the arty is over are going to have an exciting day, anyway. Philippines, Malaya, Burma, New Guinea, to name a few, would support large-scale scenarios, and rumor has it there was some shooting going on in China, too. You would have Brit, Aussie, Kiwi, Dutch, Indian, Chinese, and others, besides Yanks. I think Korea should be CM5, though.

Well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well. If it isn't little Meeksie. Long time no viddy, droog. How goes? I know you, isn't it your picture in the newspapers? Didn't I see you on the video this morning? Are you not the poor victim of this horrible new technique? And Crodette! An embarassment of riches, to be sure... Eggie-wegs. I would like to smash 'em!... now menschie, and the lunatic fringe is complete.... Meeks, when it comes to mumbled/shouted oriental curses, believe me, I am the original focus group. I am trabanjin, worser than galage-man ('k, I'm a little slow with the M1A1 vacuum), and a hawse (referring to my birth year in the Chinese zodiac)! Sullender while thewe is stir time! I still have your turn, srut! [ 07-11-2001: Message edited by: Mark IV ]